Enduring sci-fi hit 'Doctor Who' is to be celebrated at the TV Bafta Awards this weekend to mark the programme's 50th anniversary year.

Stars Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman have filmed a special sketch to be screened during the ceremony on Sunday and a pair of daleks will be trundling up the red carpet beforehand.

The current Doctor Who Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman

The announcement of the celebration for the family show comes as it was reported veteran actor John Hurt will feature as a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor in a special episode later this year.

Hurt himself has said in his guest role he will play a "part of the Doctor" in a "kind of trinity" which also includes David Tennant, who played the role prior to Smith.

John Hurt

The programme reaches its half century milestone later this year and is expected to see a number of the Doctor's regenerations brought together on-screen.

This Sunday's Arqiva British Academy Television Awards will also feature a video montage with highlights from the Who archives, and Coleman will also be presenting one of the awards on the night.

Bafta chief executive Amanda Berry said: "There are only a handful of programmes that have the quality and longevity of Doctor Who and the ability to put the nation on their sofas - or indeed behind them - year after year."

Doctor Who's executive producer, Steven Moffat, said: "I'm thrilled that Bafta are including a special tribute to the show."

The event takes place at London's Royal Festival Hall and will be screened on BBC1 at 8pm on Sunday.

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British actress Carole Ann Ford (centre, right) makes a horn sign at a Dalek from the BBC television science fiction series 'Doctor Who', at the Daily Mail Schoolboys' and Girls' Exhibition at Olympia, London, 28th December 1964. In the series, Ford plays Susan Foreman, the companion of the first Doctor, played by William Hartnell. (Photo credit: Victor Drees/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Dr Who encounters the ancient Aztecs in an episode of the famous TV series in 1964. From left to right, the actors are John Ringham, William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, William Hartnell (1908 - 1975) and Keith Pyott. (Photo credit: Moore/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

British actors Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen pose in 1974, who star in the new BBCTV series 'Dr Who'. (Photo by Victor Blackman/Express/Getty Images)

Tom Baker as the new Dr Who in 1974. He is shown here with a Cyberman and his assistant Sarah Jane Smith, played by Elisabeth Sladen, at the BBC television centre. (Photo credit: Frank Barratt/Keystone/Getty Images)

Actor Jon Pertwee, a former Dr Who, and actress Elisabeth Sladen, who played his companion in the series, at Heathrow Airport where they departed to Miami to attend a Dr Who convention (PA)

Tom Baker, as Doctor Who, and Mary Tamm as his companion, Romana, on the set of the BBC television science fiction series 'Doctor Who', at BBC TV Centre, London, 25th April 1978. (Photo by Fred Mott/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

English actors Jon Pertwee (1919 - 1996) and Elisabeth Sladen (1946 - 2011) outside BBC TV Centre, London, 26th June 1973. Pertwee and Sladen play Doctor Who and his companion Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series 'Doctor Who'. (Photo by William H. Alden/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Peter Purves

DR Who: Billie Piper, Christopher Eccleston

Bernard Cribbins (and David Tennant collect the award for best Drama received for Dr Who during the National Television Awards 2010.

Dr Who

The eleventh Doctor Who, actor Matt Smith, and his companion Amy Pond, actress Karen Gillian, arrive at the screening of an episode of the new Doctor Who series at Cineworld, Cardiff (Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

James Corden and Matt Smith take a break from filming the BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who Penarth, Wales. Photo: WENN.com